The Certain Truth

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The Certain Truth
My collection of notes about the one and only genuine religion

Islam is based on a message from God called the Qur'an. One of the most unique properties of this Qur'an among other religious scriptures is that it is the only book that explicitly declares that it is the genuine final word about God and the life He created for us, and then it goes on to prove this statement. This is what God tells us in the chapter of Al-Waqi'ah (The Event):

"Indeed, this is the certain truth."

This fact alone, once we establish that it is accurate, is the meaning of real faith. Faith is the belief in the truth about God

. A lot of people, Muslims or otherwise, follow a false faith, one based on emotions only, based on how they were brought up or what they like to believe. But real faith can only exist if we can see the evidence with our minds before accepting it with our hearts. God

instructed us to look for Him with our mind and then reach to Him with our heart. Once we have this real faith, we can then be safe in the knowledge that our religion is based upon something solid and can follow its teachings with a peaceful heart.

A Muslim's faith and way of life is based completely on the Qur'an. Even following Prophet Muhammad's teachings, which we call Sunna, is instructed in the Qur'an several times. It's only logical that we should have a way to certify that this Qur'an is the truth before putting so much at stake with it. God knew that, and He granted us more than we need.

Being a computer engineer and geek, I like to interpret things in that context. We can think of us humans as computers created by God , and the Qur'an is our operating system. If you run the right operating system, everything will go well as planned, and you will be able to get some productive work done. So before we run this program, we should make sure it is the right one for us and that there are no bugs hiding in it that will make our lives "crash", so to speak. The "right" operating system is determined by two points:

Who wrote the program? And was it designed to do the right job? If it was written by Microsoft, then probably we shouldn't trust it too much. But if we have proof that it was written by an all-knowing God , then we don't need to worry.
Did we receive the program intact, or was it corrupted on the way? Was the disk it came on bumped or damaged? Was there noise on the line while downloading it? If we can make sure there have been no errors in transmission, then we'll be fine.

To put this into more definate scientific terms, what we are talking about here is the authenticity of the Holy Qur'an, and the two points in question that constitute authenticity are:

Originality: That the Qur'an can only be from our God .
Accuracy: That the Qur'an has reached us 100% uncorrupted and unchanged.

This is the meaning of the "certain truth", that we can be "certain" without a doubt, based on solid evidence, of the two points above, and then we will know that the Qur'an is the one and only authentic "truth" from God

. As you read the Qur'an, you get a sense that these are not the words of man, and this is enough for some people. But if you study the Qur'an's Arabic script closely and honestly, you will find real evidence that it cannot possibly be written by anyone except an almighty God

, and at the same time, evidence that there has not been one verse or word, or even one letter that has been changed from the original in this book.

Islam is an incredible, beautiful religion, which has every aspect worthy of the one true way of God . Some of these aspects of beauty that are worthy of study are:

It has the simplest, purest and most logical doctrine; one God .
It is the same eternal message delivered to us from God . It started with Adam (peace upon him), the first man, through several more prophets such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace upon them), and ending with Muhammad , the last prophet.
It has a solid reference, the Qur'an, and anything not indicated in it is up to us.
It gives us morals that teach us to do what is logically good, and avoid what is logically evil.
It has a perfect role model for us, Prophet Muhammad . If we always ask ourselves "What did Muhammad do in a similar situation?", we can never go wrong.
It has a very rich set of teachings that covers the details of any situation and problem we may face in our lives.
It has a well established system for us to evaluate our faith and goodness.
It is provably the truth.

Other religions may share some of these aspects to some extent, but no other religion shares the last point. I have chosen to study this point here, since once it is established, one can go on to study the other points with a peaceful heart. This section of my website is a collection of notes I have made while reading and looking for information that demonstrates this idea of authenticity of the Qur'an. Approach the subject with an honest and pure heart, and you too will find that this is the Certain Truth.

Please read my disclaimer for Islamic items on this website before you go on.

Authenticity of the Holy Qur'an
General discussion of the various ways in which we can verify that the Qur'an is from God , and that it has been accurately transmitted to us unchanged.

Scientific and historical foreknowledge in the Holy Qur'an
These are some interesting statements and references made in the Qur'an about scientific discoveries and historical events that were not yet known to us at the time the Qur'an was written. I will add to this list as I learn more of them.

Checksums in the Holy Qur'an
This is an interesting way in which we can verify that the Qur'an is an error-free message from God using simple computer/information theory. I have tried to list as many as I can of the various checksums here.

Success of the Qur'an as a way of life
Some examples of how, when the Muslims applied the Qur'an to their lives in the past, they were the greatest of nations and the happiest of people.

Quotes about Islam
A collection of quotes from famous scientists, philosophers, and other great minds about Islam and religion in general. This is strictly not part of the certainty of truth, and falls under the category of indications of truth, but it helps to support the idea.